As the holiday season approaches, we invite you to make a donation and help Nidus in its work. Your generosity helps us sustain and expand critical services such as:

• Free Information & Guidance: From webinars to accessible videos, we provide essential resources for adults and families navigating legal authority and personal planning.
• Representation Agreement Forms: Free basic forms for personal use to give legal authority to others, if you need help with decision-making.
• Community Outreach: Raising awareness across BC to ensure everyone knows about personal planning and legal documents available in BC.

How to Donate:

• Online: Click the “Donate Now” button below to make an instant impact.
• E-Transfer: Contact us at info@nidus.ca for details.
• By Cheque: Make payable to Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre Association and mail to 2391 Crescent Way, Abbotsford, BC, V2S 3M1.
  (Please note: Due to the ongoing postal strike, mailed donations may be delayed. To ensure timely processing and a 2024 tax receipt, we encourage online or e-transfer donations.)

All donations receive a tax receipt.

Your support means the world to us. Thank you.

October is Personal Planning Month, a time to focus on making important decisions while you are alive and well. Personal Planning involves creating legal documents that ensure your wishes are respected if you become incapable due to illness, injury, or aging.

What is Personal Planning?
Personal Planning is a proactive approach to making arrangements while you are alive. It differs from Estate Planning, which focuses on asset distribution after death. Personal Planning covers the period in which you may need help due to illness, injury, or other support needs while you are still living. By creating legal documents such as a Representation Agreement, you can ensure that your wishes are respected and that those you trust can make decisions on your behalf.

Through Representation Agreements (RAs), you can appoint trusted individuals to manage your health care, personal care, and even financial matters. This allows you to safeguard your choices and autonomy.

The Importance of Personal Planning

Without appropriate legal documents, your family members or friends may face barriers when trying to act on your behalf. Even a spouse. parent or adult children do not have automatic authority to make decisions for you.

Nidus Resources
Nidus has a wealth of resources to help you with personal planning:

• Representation Agreement Forms: Nidus offers free RA7 and RA9 forms on its website. Go to https://nidus.ca/ra-forms/ and scroll down to the form that fits the individual’s cognitive capability.
•  Fact sheets: The RA7 Fact Sheet provides a detailed overview of what an RA7 covers, while the RA9 Fact Sheet is designed for individuals with a higher level of capacity.
• Videos: Nidus has created several videos which provide insights into personal planning and representation agreements in BC. You can see them on the Nidus YouTube channel.
• Nidus Registry: The online Nidus Registry is a secure place to store information and a copy of your legal documents. Registering with the Nidus Registry ensures that your plans are accessible when needed. Print wallet cards directly from the Nidus Registry. For step-by-step instructions, click here.

• Free Online Presentation: We’re hosting a FREE webinar on November 6th. Choose the time that works best for you:
  📅 November 6th, 12–1 pm – Click here to register
  📅 November 6th, 7–8 pm – Click here to register
• Legal bytes: Follow us on Instagram to get helpful insights from our “Legal Bytes” series, where we provide quick legal points and valuable information on BC laws related to legal planning. If you’re not on Instagram yet, simply download the app and follow our page for updates. Prefer Facebook? No worries—most of the same content is posted on our Facebook page too!

Start your Planning Today

Use this month as a reminder to act now and protect your rights and wishes. For more information, visit nidus.ca.

Nidus offers in-person appointments on Monday afternoons thanks to our trained volunteer, Maureen, at the South Granville Seniors Centre (in Vancouver). You must book an appointment in advance. Call 604-732-0812.

Maureen can provide an overview of legal planning documents available in BC and can help with making a Representation Agreements. Maureen can also help you register your completed documents with the online Nidus Registry.

While appointments are free, the South Granville Seniors Centre suggests a $5.00 donation to SGSC when making your booking. We express our sincere gratitude to SGSC for enabling bookings and providing facilities to offer personal help with Nidus services for SGSC members and the larger community of Metro Vancouver.

Please note, you don’t have to be a senior to access this help.

We are so grateful to the Provincial Employees Community Services Fund (PECSF) for their continued support of Nidus. These donations, made possible through the dedication of BC Public Service employees, help us keep providing personal planning services.

Your support means the world to us! Special thanks to those who chose Nidus as their charity of choice during the annual PECSF campaign. Your generosity empowers us to continue making a difference in the community.

If you are a BC Public Service employee, you can support us too through PECSF!

This is to inform you about recent legislative changes. The Representation Agreement Act and Representation Agreement Regulation, the Power of Attorney Act, and the Wills, Estates, and Succession Act as well as other BC legislation have undergone revisions to remove gender-specific language. For example, he/she is replaced by adult.

Please note, there is no need to redo existing documents due to these changes; they remain valid.

In keeping with these changes, the required Certificates on our Section 7 Representation Agreement forms have been updated. The updated forms are available here.

Nidus is featured in the Spring 2024 edition of Transition Magazine. The feature highlights our recent Accessibility Videos. Thank you to Disability Alliance BC for this feature.

To read more about these videos, click here.

October is Personal Planning Month! Personal planning is about making arrangements for while you are alive but you may need assistance due to an illness, injury or disability.

Why is Personal Planning so important?

People are living longer lives–and disability, injury, and illness are becoming more common, and inevitable for more people. It is important to plan for these circumstances in the same way that many people are encouraged to explore disability insurance options and not just life insurance.

Personal planning covers preparation for all four areas of your life: health care, personal care, legal affairs and financial affairs.

Why shouldn’t I just keep things informal?

Personal planning does not replace informal help provided by your friends and family. Rather, by making legal documents for personal planning you can give your personal supporters the legal authority necessary to help you. The best time to do personal planning is before a crisis occurs.

Ready to take action?

• Read more about different types of personal planning tools here.
• Sign up for our Nidus Newsletter to stay updated on the latest news.
• Looking for Representation Agreement forms? Click here.
• Already have your personal planning documents in place? Learn about how the Nidus Registry helps with communication and emergency preparedness.

An article from Nidus is featured in the recent Perspectives Magazine. Thank you to the BC Association of Social Workers (BCASW) for including us in the Spring/Summer edition, 2023, 45(2) and for allowing us to share this article with the public.

Our article provides a comprehensive overview of Representation Agreements (RAs). It aims to address the confusion surrounding different types of RAs, who can create them, and their purpose. We believe that understanding these important legal documents is essential both for professionals like social workers and individuals seeking to plan for their future. You can read the full article by clicking here.